The furor in India over the arrest and strip-search of an Indian diplomat in New York City continued to heat up Thursday, but some cautionary voices also were being heard. The website of The Hindu, an English-language national newspaper in India, on Thursday gave big play to Indian officials blasting the U.S. prosecutor’s explanation for the treatment of Devyani Khobragade, who was arrested Dec. 12 on visa fraud charges involving the immigration and treatment of a nanny. An editorial on the Hindu website, however, counseled caution. “Never known for taking on the U.S. on substantive policy issues, the government’s unusually…

US spying, including on President Rousseff, derailed deal according to a government source Brazil awarded a $4.5 billion contract to Saab AB on Wednesday to replace its aging fleet of fighter jets, a surprise coup for the Swedish company after news of U.S. spying on Brazilians helped derail Boeing’s chances for the deal. The contract, negotiated over the course of three presidencies, will supply Brazil’s air force with 36 new Gripen NG fighters by 2020. Aside from the cost of the jets themselves, the agreement is expected to generate billions of additional dollars in future supply and service contracts. Saab did not immediately comment on the…

LONDON — Intercepted voice mail messages made by Prince William on the phone of his then-girlfriend — now wife — Kate Middleton, the duchess of Cambridge, have been read out to a British jury as part of a high-profile phone-hacking trial. According to reporters at the trial, in one message Prince William refers to Middleton as “babykins.” In another, he jokes that he was almost shot — with blanks — while taking part in a military training exercise. “Hi baby. Um, sorry, I’ve got back in off my night navigation exercise,” the court heard William say in a message that…

He also suggested that Ukraine could adopt parts of Russia’s recently founded Customs Union with other former Soviet republics. The opposition is furious after he accepted a Russian bailout, seen as a reward for rejecting EU integration. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was defending the Russian economy. “We just want to defend our gates,” he told journalists in Moscow, days after Russia gave Ukraine a $15bn (£9.2bn; 10.9bn euros) bailout and gas discount. Ukraine, he said, was a fraternal state with close industrial ties to Russia. Protests have gripped much of Ukraine since President Yanukovych suspended the EU deal…